Newsletter: February 2010
Succession Planning: What you need to do and why it's important in this economy
Succession planning is often considered an exercise, a means to an end, a Human Resources task to be checked off and moved into the done pile. This is absolutely the wrong way to think about succession planning.
Succession planning is an organizational improvement initiative that enables a business (i.e. your organization) to grow and thrive now and in the future.
Why? Because businesses and organizations can neither succeed nor grow without management talent. It's really that simple. What's not as simple is developing, nurturing and grooming your talent pipeline.
We are coming out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Sure, the unemployment rate is still high, which makes some executives believe that the talent pipeline is strong. When they need a management / executive resource, all they will have to do is pick up the phone, post an ad or look on sites like Monster and Career Builders and snap, their talent needs will be resolved. Heads up: many of your competitors are seriously positioning themselves for growth and are truly hoping you continue to believe this.
Good talent is hard to find – in both good and bad economies. It's hard to find because talent is a combination of skills, behaviors, motivation, organizational fit, and passion. And that is truly hard to find, especially when a fast hire is needed (yesterday)
Reason One for a Succession Plan: Replacement for the key Executive(s)
Many people we've talked to believe the only reason to do a succession plan is to have a replacement picked for the CEO and perhaps one or two key executives. This is clearly one of the reasons to do a succession plan. The more complete reason is to have potential replacements identified and being prepared for all key positions within the organization, not just the CEO and key executives. This is often referred to planning "several levels deep", that is, executives to departmental managers and division leaders; those roles that are necessary (even if not obvious) to keep critical business going.
Remember, executives set strategy, managers implement strategy. You need strength in both areas to succeed. In addition to replacing internal employees who leave for various reasons, there are two additional reasons to have a succession plan: 1) to support anticipated growth and 2) to address talent shortages.
Executives and managers will leave. They may leave to take another job; they may be fired; they may retire, become ill or leave because of a spouse's relocation. When an executive or manager's vacancy is anticipated, a smooth transition is possible, simply because there is time to manage the transition. It is when the vacancy is unexpected that a challenge exists. Maintaining continuity is important and it results in less cost and less service disruption.
As the economy improves, growth will occur and an organization can only support and sustain growth if it has the talent to manage the growth.
The second market trend for succession planning is to Support Anticipated Growth, is different than the replacement strategy noted above. In this case, new positions are needed. When anticipating growth, it is important not only to identify internal talent but also important to build and maintain a talent network comprised of viable candidates who currently work for other organizations.
The third reason to do a succession plan is to Address and Deal with Talent Shortages. Talent shortages occur even in a down economy. Examples include pharmacy managers, nurse managers, engineers, sales representatives. If a pharmacy manager resigns in a hospital, research shows that finding a replacement can be extremely difficult. How will the organization respond? What strategies will be put in place to avoid a lengthy leadership void?
Succession planning is a process and not an event, and it is a process that is critical for all organizations whether they are anticipating turnover and vacancies, planning for growth or working to adjust to talent shortages.
To manage the process effectively, we recommend the following steps:
- Assign responsibility for succession planning to the executive team members (and makes its success part of their evaluation process)
- Identify needs/key roles currently and in the future that reflect several layers deep
- Develop and use methods/tools/techniques for identifying employee competencies and aspirations
- Implement a structure for developing potential successors
- Implement a structure for transitioning successors to and in new role(s)
- Identify and emergency or interim process to fulfill a role if for some reason the potential successor does not work out.
- Align your recruitment initiative to succession planning by forecasting key needs and interviewing for growth orientation and adaptability
- Evaluate plan effectiveness and update the plan as required, at least annually
For more in depth information and to help you prepare your succession plan, look for our White Paper on Succession Planning, available on our website by March 2010.
Service Announcements
In effort to support the growing demand for executive team alignment and transition support; we are pleased to be offering ASCEND for Teams™, a customized program that enables companies to overcome their turf issues and under-performance through team building and alignment to produce higher results.
If you could benefit from the immediate and private support and expert advice from a business and thought leader, contact us today about our Mentoring Program.
We will be giving a talk on "Influence without Authority: The key to getting work done" at the International Facilities Management Association's Facility Fusion Conference on April 13th in Philadelphia, PA.
Our Offer for You: Is there a current business challenge you are facing that you would like us to address in our blogs or articles? Send us an email and we'll do our best to address it (while keeping your identity private).
Feathers In Our Caps
We are excited to have been published in Germany and translated into German this month!
http://e-articles.info/t/i/6974/l/de/
Published in We Magazine for Women:
http://tinyurl.com/yzdhxu2
Check out our 5 recommended Business Health Check Questions, as quoted in Counselor Magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/yk3jeam
A blogger in New Zealand is writing a blog series on each one of our self-sabotaging behaviors that we published in our article: Becoming and Entrepreneur – 10 Mistakes that Will Kill Your Transition From Executive to Entrepreneur
Get our recent radio interview at: Younique! – hosted by ArtistFirst.com
Younique! Home Page
Direct Link to Podcast
Just ask for our presentation materials for our recent Webinar: "Succession Planning: Why It's Important as the Economy Recovers". Go to our website to download and listen, and let us know if you would like us to share the presentation materials with you. Just ask. Really!
